Thursday 1 November 2012

The North Wind Doth Blow

And we shall have ...... helicopters.
Bet you weren't expecting that.
I'll explain later.


This is a perennial Aster, commonly known as a Michaelmas Daisy, planted by Nature, not by me. It is growing in a sunny border, that in a normal summer is quite dry. But this has not been a normal summer, and the sunny border never dried out all season. For the first time ever, the plant has not succumbed to mildew, and has put on its best ever display.


Here is what it looks like from a distance. This is just one plant. Unfortunately, all the plants around it are passed their best, so it is flowering all by itself. May move it to a different spot next year, somewhere not as dry, because it obviously thrives in damper soil.

Now, about those helicopters. Here they are on the patio:


And here's a close up:


And here's one on the lawn:


As well as losing their leaves, autumn is the time when trees disperse their seeds on the wind. In this case, yes you've guessed it, the north wind. A neighbouring garden, to the north of mine, contains a large sycamore tree. And a few days ago, when we had a strong north wind blowing, the tree decided to shed its seeds, all over my garden. Now I don't know if you've ever seen sycamore seeds falling from a tree, but they swirl around just like little helicopters. They do, honestly. I imagine there will be a lot of sycamore seedlings to pull up next spring.

And finally, following last night's halloween, here's a photo of the spooky moon:


By the way, forgot to mention, this blog is one year old today. I would like to thank everyone for stopping by to read my ramblings, and especially to all those of you who leave comments, the icing on the cake. Thanks again.

20 comments:

  1. Happy First Blogiversary!

    Helicopter seeds are fun to watch. Nice photo of the spooky moon too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Shirley,
      Never seen so many helicopter seeds before. It was busier than an airport.

      Delete
  2. Congratulations on your first anniversary, I hope there will be many more to come! Lovely Michaelmas Daisy photos and my guess was right with the helicopters :-)

    The moon shot was spooky!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Jan,
      Glad you guessed right with the helicopters.

      Delete
  3. Życzę jeszcze wielu lat blogowania i helikopterów w ogrodzie. Pozdrawiam.
    I wish you many more years of blogging and helicopters in the garden. Yours.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Giga,
      Ha ha, don't want too many helicopters though.

      Delete
  4. Your moon does look spooky, a nice setting for Halloween.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was a lucky shot. The clouds parted to reveal the full moon, and I just happened to have my camera handy.

      Delete
  5. Crystal, Happy First Blogiversary! Tree seeds...I know what you mean. I got rid of the Cercis but I am still pulling seedlings. The moon photo is the best!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Hoover,
      I get loads of tree seedlings, all from trees and shrubs growing in neighbouring gardens.

      Delete
  6. Hi Crystal, Happy Anniversary! We used to call sycamore seeds helicopters when we were kids, funny, I had forgot that :-) Lovely Aster you have, even lovelier since it was an uninvited guest, I wish all uninvited guests in my garden were so pretty!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Helene,
      The aster has been exceptional this year. It will probably be back to its mildew-covered self next year.

      Delete
  7. I love your spooky moon photo. Perfect for this time of year.

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  8. Happy Blog Birthday! I get tons of hornbeam seedlings which are a pain to pull up. It's the garden chore I enjoy the least. Your daisy is a cutie! Nature can plant a few of those in my garden. :o)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Tammy,
      Nature plants quite a few goodies in my garden.

      Delete
  9. I get loads of helicopters too in my veggie garden and most of them turn into seedlings, I seem to spend my time weeding them out.

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    Replies
    1. I seem to get lots of holly seedlings too.

      Delete
  10. Hey, that's a great picture of the moon. Isn't it interesting how the birds and trees don't seem to recognize the borders with which we demarcate our landscapes. I have been dealing with unwanted seedlings from my neighbor's Mimosa. Even after she finally cut it down...

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  11. Your self-sown michaelmas daisy looked rather nice. You, mentioned it did not get powdery mildew because of the wet season,I am sure that's true. I have noticed in my own garden some rather nice self sown seedlings of Aster novae anglae (sorry about the name). This is a known mildew free species. Oh what a lovely distant memory now in December!

    ReplyDelete